A do-it-yourself guide for getting rid of just about anything.

Best Ways to Get Rid of Chipmunks

Modified on July 17, 2016

There are several reasons for getting rid of chipmunks, not the least of which is their carnivorous desire for bird eggs and hatchlings (a somewhat rare behavior). Apart from their appetite for the young of another animal, chipmunks are considered a beneficial animal because they are apt at spreading seeds. If you’ve ever been hit in the head with a pinecone or found a stash of expensive bird seed under your porch, you know what I’m talking about. A lot of people don’t know this, but chipmunks are actually omnivores, making them beneficial in more ways than one. They are the janitors of the squirrel family, feeding on decaying meat, pestiferous bugs, grubs, seeds, and anything else that happens to be lying about. Chipmunks are voracious scavengers, making them the ideal animal to have around when your neck of the woods needs some tidying up. I’m not trying to convince you that you don’t have a chipmunk problem; I’m just trying to help you understand some of the good habits chipmunks possess.

Chipmunks have their bad habits as well. Chipmunks tend to seek out warmth and burrow beneath structures where they probably shouldn’t be. I can’t count the number of chipmunks I cooked or mulched after starting my car in the winter while I was still living in Bemidji. They eat bird seed, chase song birds away from your feeders, eat flower bulbs, eat up all of your pet’s food, and they make a racket when they feel threatened—which is pretty much all the time. Not only that, but chipmunks hump like rabbits, producing litters at least twice during the year, so you know there isn’t a shortage of them. Certainly, there are reasons to resent the chipmunk, and in this article we’ll hopefully help you find a good way to get rid of chipmunks, or at least minimize chipmunk damage.

Why should I get rid of chipmunks?

Chipmunks will eat as much bird seed as they can get their grubby little paws on.

Chipmunk burrowing can loosen retaining walls and foundations.

Chipmunks have been known to eat hatchlings and bird eggs.

Chipmunks will dig up plant bulbs and other garden plants.

Identifying a Chipmunk

This is a chipmunk.

Chipmunks are actually a member of the squirrel family, but when we say “squirrels” we usually mean the bushy-tailed, tree climbing members of the family. Chipmunks are smaller, striped/spotted rodents that tend to stay on the ground rather than jumping from tree to tree like red and gray squirrels do.

Best Ways to Get Rid of Chipmunks

The path of least resistance, when it comes to getting rid of chipmunks, is a well groomed yard. We call it habitat modification in the pest control industry, and though it might seem a little passive for some, it’s usually the most efficient way to keep pest populations down. To get rid of chipmunks, you’ll want to keep your yard clear of debris. This includes rock piles, brush piles, thick bushes, stacks of firewood, and other places where chipmunks might find shelter. Keep grasses near the edges of buildings and outdoor structures well trimmed with a weed-whacker to help avoid giving chipmunks a suitable place to travel or burrow without being seen. Also, try to find ways to keep the spillage from bird feeders to a minimum, or use a kind of bird feed that chipmunks don’t like.

Excluding them from certain areas is the best way to get rid of chipmunks, which is most easily accomplished with hardware cloth. When it comes to getting rid of rodents, any rodents, from gardens or buildings or wherever, ¼” hardware cloth is the preferred material for building barriers. Chipmunks can be kept from burrowing under porches and structures by stapling hardware cloth around the edges of those buildings where chipmunk traffic is highest. Burying the hardware cloth 8″ below the surface of the surrounding soil can only increase the effectiveness of such a barrier. To keep chipmunks away from newly planted bulbs, simply lay a piece of hardware cloth over bulbs and cover it with dirt.

Though repellents aren’t considered the most effective way to get rid of chipmunks, we should at least mention them here. For the most part, repellents aren’t a good way to get rid of any pest because most rodent pests will eventually grow accustomed to the smell of the repellent and continue doing what they do. For this reason, it is suggested that if you’re going to use a repellent, you should buy a few different kinds of repellent and switch up the applications, so as to reduce the chances of chipmunks or any other pests getting used to the smell. Pest specific repellents aside, almost any fungicidal spray that contains Thiram, Bitrex, or Ammonia soap will help keep chipmunks away from decorative plants via taste aversion.

Using traps to get rid of chipmunks is a possibility, if the chipmunk population is small enough—this is particularly true if you’re using live traps. Because chipmunk populations can get close to 10 animals per acre, it’s up to your and your sense of judgment about whether you should use live traps to trap the chipmunks and relocate them, or if you should employ reusable rat traps to kill the chipmunks and be done with it. It all boils down to how much time and money you have. Live traps are more expensive and you’ll be spending time relocating the chipmunks that you trap, while rat traps are cheap but the mess they make can be absolutely repulsive, especially if you were a fan of Alvin, Simon, and Theodore. A more thorough set of suggestions for effective chipmunk trapping are found below in the section entitled “how to trap chipmunks.”

While there are no fumigants or poisons registered for use on chipmunks, that doesn’t mean you can’t use them to get rid of chipmunks. Actually, that’s not true. There are some states where the use of poisons and fumigants are illegal when it comes to killing chipmunks. This is either because there is a ban on killing these rodents or because your local authorities are worried about secondary kills (ie. the chipmunk dies with a belly full of cyanide and a rare bird dies after eating it.) Secondary kills are a very real concern, considering the number of birds that prey on small rodents like the chipmunk. Consult your local conservation office before using fumigants or pesticides, and follow the directions on the packaging carefully.

How to Trap Chipmunks

If you actually like the Chipmunks version of all your favorite Christmas songs, then you’re probably the type who is going to try live traps, otherwise known as box traps or mesh wire traps. If you’re like me and you’ve found yourself fantasizing about the various ways you might murder Alvin, Simon, or Theodore while you sit in a cheap diner listening to them screech their way through another rendition of Silent Night, then you’ll probably want to use rat traps. Before you do anything, check with your local conservation officer to make sure trapping chipmunks is legal where you are.

Suggestions for live chipmunk trapping:

Use peanut butter mixed with sunflower seeds as bait. The stickiness of the peanut butter will ensure that the bait can be applied to the trigger without it falling off.

Don’t set the trigger on your traps for 2-3 days, allowing chipmunks the chance to get used to going inside a strange, steel box.

After you notice that chipmunks are feeding regularly from the trap, set the triggers and check the traps often.

Place a sheet over the trap to help reduce the animal’s trauma during relocation.

Make sure you have permission to release the animals wherever it is you’re letting them go.

Suggestions of lethally trapping chipmunks:

Use peanut butter mixed with sunflower seeds as bait, again, because peanut butter sticks well to the triggers on rat traps.

Place a shoebox over the trap that allows enough clearance for the trap to snap shut properly, with a small enough hole cut out to allow only smaller rodents like the chipmunk access to the trap.

Allow the trap to sit without the trigger set for 2-3 days to get the chipmunks used to the idea of feeding from a funny smelling shoebox.

Once the chipmunks are used to feeding from the rat traps, set the triggers and check the traps often.

Use a plastic bag to dispose of the dead chipmunks and wash the traps with scentless soap before reusing them.

Natural Chipmunk Control

Organic repellents for small rodents like chipmunks are plentiful on the internet. The problem is finding an organic repellent (or any repellent for that matter) that actually works. A lot of organic repellents use the urine of larger predatory animals like the fox or the wolf. Switching from one repellent to the other on a regular basis seems to be more effective than sticking to just one type of repellent; however, I wouldn’t rely on expensive repellents to get rid of chipmunks forever. If you’d like to give it a try, though, Amazon sells Shake-Off Coyote/Fox granules for a good price.

Cone-shaped metal baffles are a great way to keep chipmunks out of bird feeders and away from trees where you know there are newly born birds or bird eggs. The band should be placed so that the smallest part of the cone is facing up, and is most effective at a distance of about 5′-6′ from the ground, while the radius of the cone from the center should be no less than 18″. Applying Vaseline or petroleum jelly to the metal can increase the effectiveness of such a barrier.

Thistle seeds rather than sunflower seeds might help avert chipmunks from feeding on your bird feeders. As Eric has already mentioned, squirrels don’t seem to appreciate Thistle as much as sunflower or any other type of seed, so we can only hope that the same is true of their smaller cousin, the chipmunk. An interesting and cheap technique for feeding birds. Thistle is described more thoroughly in the article about getting rid of squirrels.

Safflower seeds are another alternative to sunflower and/or thistle. The great thing about safflower is that a greater number more bird species are attracted to it than Thistle. While thistle is a good way to keep squirrels and (hopefully) chipmunks away from your feeders, Thistle tends only to attract finches and a few other species of bird. Birds that will feed on Safflower include Chickadees, Finches, Nuthatches, Grosbeaks, Titmice and Cardinals. If you’re a Amazon Prime member, you can get 25 lbs of Safflower Seeds for a decent price with free shipping!

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COMMENTS

October 9, 2016 at 6:19 pm

Logansays:

Hey Mike,
Not usually. They tend to stick with seeds and nuts.

September 30, 2016 at 12:47 am

jennsays:

I’m trying the bucket idea!

September 8, 2016 at 9:57 pm

Joesays:

Still battling these chippers. Bought a Hoont electronic rodent zapper trap and set it with bait. It’s now 2 days and for the first time in years I can’t find one chipmunk. Somehow they seem to know that this trap is bad news so they’ve stayed away. I never thought it would be so difficult to either relocate them or eliminate them…so far the relocate didn’t help after 4 catches and relocated 5-8 miles away so now trying the zapper. Oh boy…..

Recently I threw out 3 sliced in half avocados into 1 of my 3 gardens. The 1 garden that I tossed them into is where the crappy rodents used to stay to mooch discarded bird seeds from my bird feeder yet after I saw that the entire tossed avocados were fully consumed I stopped seeing the crappy rodents I hate very much! I found this website while googling if avocados kill chipmunks & I still haven’t found the answer but that’s ok.

Hey Mary, if it were me, I’d get a slotted litter box scooper to scoop the carcasses out with, and just throw them in a bag in the trash (outdoors, of course). Or, if you live outside of town, just toss them outside of your property and let the hungry critters of the world eat them.

August 19, 2016 at 8:46 am

mary smithsays:

some of these things are interesting. the ones that are impractical, spraying anything, when you have a large garden, particularly, seem too expensive. we grow vegetables to save money, time, and to eat unsprayed produce. the bucket/seed method seems an option, except for who is going to empty the bucket, or, how often do you need to empty it. do floating carcasses deter new admits? there must be dozens, here. they were cute up until they started eating the tomatoes I was waiting to be vine ripened. their cat entertainment value is little compared to the displeasure they are causing me. if teaching them to swim is the answer, I guess I’ll try. works for the japanese and colorado beetles . . .

I just purchased The Betterodent trap by Intruder from the hardware store for about 10 bucks. what a great tool . I am getting about 3 chipmunks a day .Clean up is basically touchless and easy. Peanut butter & sunflower seeds work great.My tulips and other bulbs are finally safe

Linda, I’d go further. 3-5 miles. Aside from being good at getting back home, if you do get them far away, there are tons of others to take their place. It’s a constant battle. Be diligent, though, and you should start to see a difference.

July 12, 2016 at 9:11 am

Joe Southwicksays:

My grandson uses a pellet rifle works better than the bucket did as we dont have to wait for them to drown plus it gives him something to hunt until hr is old enough for deer.

July 11, 2016 at 6:05 am

JMDsays:

I don’t like to kill critters in the yard, even when they cause problems. It’s their habitat, too. A natural way to discourage chipmunks that worked for me was sprinkling a lot of hot pepper on the ground around my flower beds, where they were digging. I only had to do this twice and didn’t even use a whole spice jar of the red cayenne pepper. Have not seen a chipmunk or any new holes ever since. The pepper must be replaced after a rain, but it only took two attempts to chase them away.

July 10, 2016 at 4:38 pm

Debbie Scottsays:

Tried to get rid of chipmunk without harming it but did not work, was getting under my car and worried about wiring getting eaten. Had to cut several pieces of double bubble in half and throw into bushes and under bird feeder. Have not seen chipmunk in 3 days. Hated to hurt the cute critter but can’take afford to replace car wiring.

July 9, 2016 at 11:19 am

Lindasays:

We have been trapping and releasing chipmunks for 1 week relocating 1 mile down the road at a very wooded area. The count is now at 15!!! Are these little critters going back? Does anyone know how far we need to be taking them?

July 6, 2016 at 5:00 pm

Dianne Kernsays:

I used the method of setting out a 5 gallon bucket of water (filled half way) with a 5″ wide fence post piece (about 5 feet long?).. I sprinkled sunflower seeds along the length of the post and placed it so that some sunflower seeds were at the very top and also in the water. It took all of 20 minutes and the nasty chipmunk DROWNED… It works!!

Emmie, what’s the pond like? Above ground with slippery edges? flush to the ground with rock edges? Do you think they’d be able to climb out? They can swim, they just don’t like to. And yes, they’re far more active during the day. Also, I’d be concerned about the seeds sinking and clogging your filter and/or pump when you do turn the waterfall back on. Play it safe and do the bucket trick.

June 17, 2016 at 9:44 am

Emmiesays:

We have an ornamental pond with a small waterfall. If we don’t run the pumps for the waterfall, and sprinkle sunflower seeds on the surface of the water, would that lure them in to drown in the pond? Are they only active during the day?

Okay, my “chipper dipper has a death toll of 13 chips and 3 mice in three days of operation. However, last night, a squirrel actually saved a chippie from drowning i”chicken wire” covers can work…what size?

Good luck, Joe! Havaharts work great. However, if you’ve got a bunch of them around, it may take awhile. Maybe try dumping some predator urine in the burrow.

June 3, 2016 at 3:52 pm

Joesays:

I’ve been battling with chipmunk(s) for about 4 years now. They have built their burrow about a foot away from the rear garage wall. Over the years I’ve tried Cayenne pepper, mustard powder, pepper spray, pouring water down the entrance to the burrow, cementing an area where they were digging,on and on they never let anything deter their will to live outside my place…so,2 days ago I purchased the havahart model 1025 trap. I just caught and relocated my 3rd chipmunk in 2 days.
The problem seems to be that every time I get rid of one, another one smells the leftover bait ( or maybe urine since they can pee when scared ) but either way I’m wondering at what point should I give up ? I’m thinking once I catch and release 2 or 3 more I might raise the white flag.
One thing I have to say, these little creatures are determined and almost have a don’t give a crap attitude that should be respected. They are cute but can cause damage. The war continues !!!!

By far, the best succes I’ve had is with a havahart type trap with two open ends. I place the trap along an open run against a wall (ex. up against your house). I don’t use any bait at all. The chipmunks just walk right through the trap and get caught. I’ve caught 35 chipmunks in 30 days and then no more (i had caught most or all of them in the area). i can catch 4 per day at times if i really keep checking the trap. this works for me every time ive tried it. if you dont catch one for a few days, move the trap to a different wall. i just kill the boogers, but do what you like with them. you may have to do this every few years to keep the population down.

May 28, 2016 at 11:27 am

Doyle Kienelsays:

I bought Havahart repellent pellets and spread it around the fence and other areas. THEY ATE IT!! I will try the bucket method. Thanks

May 26, 2016 at 12:07 pm

Gailsays:

Thanks for all the suggestions! I hate chipmunks!! Their “oh so cute” only lasted until they started burrowing under my hydrangeas and eating the roots until the plants were wilted, then DEAD! The chipmunks need to go bye-bye! I’m going to try the Repel-All and hope they go away. My stupid next door neighbor has bird feeders, which I know attract the little varmints (and snakes, too)! UGH! Some people just don’t use their heads! Here’s hoping I can get rid of them. I don’t have the stomach to do the bucket thing (only if I had someone to empty the bucket…yuck)!

May 26, 2016 at 6:34 am

Jimsays:

I have been using the bucket trap for years. One year we destroyed 32 chipmunks and 3 mice, once we had 3 chipmunks and 1 mouse at the same time.

May 22, 2016 at 5:46 pm

Marysays:

I pour ammonia down all the holes I can find. They disappear for quite a while. The ammonia needs to be repeated occasionally, as soon as they
reappear, I repeat the ammonia.

May 21, 2016 at 1:38 pm

Kieronsays:

Ok….so. I came across this website this morning after watching Alvin and his buddies destroying my vegetables for the last time. I decided to try the 5 gal bucket and sunflower seed trick. I set the first bucket up half filled it with water, then sprinkled the sunflower seeds in to cover added a few around the bucket and gangplank. Walked 25′ to set the next one up and within 3-4 minutes the first bucket had nailed one. Set the next 2 buckets up and the second one nailed another. Put another bucket at the opposite side of the house and I’d say within 60 minutes or so I’d rid myself of 5 shitmonks…! It’s so effective.!

Well Zoom, maybe we all should send our chipmunks, to live with you, because none of us, want any part of them.

April 18, 2016 at 11:30 am

Annsays:

People around here feed the chipmunks until they’re fat, and there’s hardly any predators so the population is far too high. Can confirm that the chipmunk dunk tank works well – in fact too well. I kept the trap up until the damage to my home and yard stopped, and then drained it and buried the dead as fertilizer. It only took a couple of hours to catch three, their deaths were swift, and the effects lasted the rest of the year. I hate having to kill, even pests like that, but the damage was getting too costly and nothing else was working (repellents, barriers). I kept them out of my yard successfully for a while with the presence of my dog, but there became so many even he couldn’t keep them all away and I don’t keep my dog out 24/7. If there are no predators managing the ecosystem, then it’s up to you to control the population, if you have the stomach…

I had several chipmunks in my yard. I bought “Repels-All” repellant in grandular form and hand spread it around plants and bushes. I also bought the spray to spread with the water hose and wet the fence, trees, sidewalk, etd. the chipmunks were gone within one day. This stuff even keeps the squirrels down. I usually continue to apply once every two months if I see activity and to keep it fresh. You can get “Repels-All” at Walmart, Lowe’s, Home Depot, or any place that sells repellants

September 10, 2015 at 9:28 am

Linda Whitesays:

Derek,
What kind of trap and ground trigger should I buy?

September 3, 2015 at 4:39 pm

Derek Sutherlandsays:

Ten animals per acre? I have a 2.5 acre wooded lot and I catch more than 200 chipmunks a year and each year they come back in groves. Now that the new spring litter kids are active I have caught more than 35 chipmunks in the last 3 days after over 100 spring through summer. The best approach for me is to use a trap with a ground trigger. I simple lay a bunch of cheap black sunflower seeds that you can buy in a huge bag for under $10. I throw a bunch in and around the cage and bingo. Works every time. I do not relocate but dispose of them. I can never completely get rid of them only control them.

The 5 gallon bucket and sunflower seed gang plank worked great! Two in the first hour. I put them out for the fox, crows & mountain lion. They were gone in the morning with no disruption of the eco system.

We live next to a forest in New England and have constant problems with chipmunks taking over the yard and destroying the garden–they love tomatoes. We finally found a solution that works great. Get a 5 gal. bucket, fill it half full of water, make a ramp by placing a board (1″ x 4″) about 3 ft long from the ground to the lip of the bucket, place 3-4 whole sunflower seeds evenly on the ramp and put a handful of seeds on top of the water in the bucket. Place the unit in the area where there is a problem. The little devils climb the ramp after the seeds, peek over the top of the bucket get greedy and drown. In the first summer (3 years ago) we got 26, the next year about a dozen, last year 5 and this year I thought we were free of them but then saw one make a mad dash from my tomatoes (having just eaten half of one). I set up the bucket and had him the next day. No more so far.

I have a problem with them getting into my F250 & causing the brake lights go on & off at any time . Either at night or during the day. Good old Ford told me it was because the coating on the wires contains , Soy, which attracts them. Goes on all year & have tried poison bait, traps & I have 3 cats & they can’t even control them, lol. HELP ??

July 17, 2015 at 1:47 pm

B in TCsays:

Thank you SOOOO much.
We did the Chipmunk Sunflower Dunk Tank and got 11 in about 12 hours.
(5 buckets).
It works!! …and my backyard, hillside, and furniture are now not being destroyed. (and the birds are back – even humming birds).
Hated to have to do this, but won’t use pesticides or kill traps and live traps weren’t an option.

I think predator urine is a good idea. It’s best to reapply often, especially after a rain, and to mix it up. Use fox, coyote, cougar, whatever you can get your hands on.

July 15, 2015 at 10:21 am

chiphaterdougsays:

It seems that there is an abundance of the little buggers this year. I have been at the same residence for 15 years, and in the last 2 , we have seen a huge increase. Not a fan of killing them, but the repellents, and we have tried many, dont seem to work.What about red fox urine, or some other wild animal liquid discharge?

Ha! Sorry to say it Lisa, but I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. One thing you might try, though, is that once you’ve blocked all of the entrances that are above ground, you can take some 1/4″ hardware cloth, unroll it so it’s nice and flat, and just lie it on the ground around the foundation. You will need to scooch it up as close to the foundation as possible and secure it with some landscaping pins to keep it in place, but that would be a lot less work than burying a fence. Just a thought. And if, for some reason, it doesn’t work (though I think it will) then you’ll still have the hardware cloth for a buried fence.

July 9, 2015 at 2:35 pm

Lisasays:

I have chippies living under my front porch slab. They are adorable, & provide hours of entertainment for my 3 indoor-only cats, who sit at the screen door watching them all day. If they stayed under the porch all winter, I would not have a problem. My home is over 125 years old & the chippies burrow between the foundation stones, & have free access to a warm home for the winter in my walls. I will admit that when I see all three cats sitting facing a corner of the house as if on a time-out, it is pretty funny, but I know that the chips have moved in for the winter. I also had one die in a wall behind my bathroom sink cabinetry, & it stunk for months! I have not found a practical solution to sealing up ALL the access points along my foundation. I never had any luck with the large rat-sized snap traps, as I worrried that one of my cats would get out & be seriously injured. For the same reason, I have avoided using poison. I have had luck using a Hav-a-hart trap & relocation, but I did have to buy 1/4″ wire mesh & wrap the trap so the chips couldn’t get out between the trap’s wire mesh. I can easily trap a dozen chips a summer, but there seems to be an inexhaustible supply of them that just move in, & the neighbors feed birds, so food is plenitful. I am stumped as to a permanent solution, short of digging up my entire foundation and burying metal cloth.

Ok, Zoom. I’ll trap them, cram them into a box and send them your way. They are destroying our gazebo, tearing up our plants and making enough racket to drown out our conversations. Maybe you can train them to do tricks.

I’m buying rat traps tomorrow. And Kelly? I WILL say “YYYAAAYYY THEY ARE DEAD!” (I loved that comment!)

July 4, 2015 at 11:32 am

Sissysays:

Zoom: You love chipmunks? Want to contribute to the cost of my garage floor repair which is cracked because of chipmunk tunnels? So far, you are lucky and I hope that continues for you, however for the rest of us who are having property destroyed we dislike them intensely. You will be singing another tune when it costs you lots of money.

I feed the birds and will not stop because my neighbors feed them too, chipmunks do not know where property lines begin and end. The answer for my neighbors and me is to continue to eradicate the chipmunks. Last summer I eradicated 38 on my half acre! And this summer I can happily report the numbers are down but I am still “sending them on their way!”

July 3, 2015 at 8:05 am

Mary Sajdaksays:

What about using cat hair? I’ve got chipmunks under my deck & I was thinking about placing cat hair around the deck. I’ve got 3 indoor cats which get groomed once a week. Would cat hair deter them?

June 26, 2015 at 8:29 pm

Kellysays:

@Zoom, when they are getting into your garage and destroying your property, then you will be able to fathom it. No one is “cheerfully” murdering. No one has posted a “YAYYY THEY ARE DEAD”. No one likes to do it. Maybe you will be lucky enough to have 6 of them destroy your property one day and then you can finally “fathom” it. Just sayin…

June 25, 2015 at 8:31 am

Zoomsays:

I don’t get it. I LOVE chipmunks; it’s unfathomable to me that some of you are cheerfully murdering them.

Angie, shouldn’t be a problem to reuse the traps. Be patient and maybe switch up the bait.

June 15, 2015 at 5:49 pm

Angie Lawrencesays:

I have been using rat traps with peanut butter and pecans. I have caught 3 chipmunks but now they will not go to the traps. Can you continue to use the same rat traps? I hate chipmunks! They are destroying my flower beds. Every morning when I walk on the porch they have dug the dirt out of my flower pots looking for bulbs. Please any advise to get rid of them.

Barbara, did you find it yet? They will burrow into clothes, hide under beds, under dressers, anything. He could be anywhere. If it were me, I’d let the cats do what they’re good at.

June 13, 2015 at 2:02 pm

Gene Schmidsays:

I have had quite the successful method and have exterminated 10 in the last month.

Fill a 5 gallon bucket about a 1/3 0r so with water. Then sprinkle sunflower seeds in the bucket. They float and appear to be a base/ground layer.
The chipmunk jumps in and drowns.

I had 4 in one bucket the other day within 24 hours. WIN!

June 12, 2015 at 11:14 am

Barbara Moynihansays:

Good Morning,First I know we have a lot of chipmunks On our 1’4 acre of land. Never been a problem. We also have 4 Siberian cats that live inside or when they are out they live In a 30 foot length cage and 18 feet high. Believe me,they do not come near the cage. This morning I found one (alive) on my windowsill In my bedroom. The cats are going beserk as well as the poor chipmunk. Do not want to kill It.Will not let cats have It either! I want to know If they burrow into clothes, or where they would hide In a home. Please Can anyone help me find a solution? Thank You , Barbara Moynihan

Seriously Ray, get into trapping. It’s the most effective way. Once they’re trapped, you can either drive them somewhere else or, as is common, drop the trap in a bucket of water to drown the chipmunk.

June 7, 2015 at 1:03 pm

Raysays:

I just want to kill chipmonks poison would be great not into trapping and all that just poison and kill. They are destroying my house ! I have killed with bucket of water and sunflower seeds. But what can I do to eliminate them ?

Judy, keep trying the trap. I’ve had great luck with peanut butter on bread as bait. They’re probably just trap-shy. Given enough time they should get brave enough to enter. Otherwise, there’s always the more violent options.

July 21, 2014 at 9:31 am

Jim BoBsays:

Smoke them out of their hole, or gasoline works too when used in a proper area!

July 13, 2014 at 10:59 am

Judy Spanelsays:

The little suckers are tearing up the flowerbed beside my driveway! I stuck the hose 3 feet down the hole it dug & ran water for about 10 minutes then filled it in. Next day-the whole thing was dug up again & the trap was empty! So far they haven’t gone for peanut butter, sunflower seeds, apples or carrots. Suggestions?

July 3, 2014 at 11:36 am

Stevesays:

Didn’t have any luck with rat traps (peanut butter & sunflower seeds) or the “chipper dipper” bucket trick. A bolt-action rifle with .22 shorts seems to be working very well (and humanely and quietly). A little seed pile on a stump about 40′ from the window of my home office draws them in for a safe shot.

Safflower and thistle are always a gamble. Sometimes they work great, sometimes the critters prove you wrong. One thing to look into is the Squirrel Buster Plus from Brome Bird Care. It’s designed to work against squirrels, but you can easily decrease the tension enough so that it will close on chipmunks, too.

June 12, 2014 at 9:04 am

GKFsays:

Chipmunks not only love safflower seed, they’ll crawl into the feeder to get it! As far as thistle, there were 3 chippys on the thistle birdfeeder this am, so I think it’s safe to say they have a taste for it! I’ll try using cayenne pepper, but I think it’ll only lead to chippys eating the seeds then drinking the water in the birdbaths (or looking for margaritas 🙂 )

I would highly recommend that, rather than putting stuff in/on your plants, that you get a Havahart live trap (most any hardware/fleet store will carry them), and bait it with a little peanut butter on a small square of bread. Place the trap near the plants that they’re eating. Once you catch the chipmunk, take it for a drive, drop it off somewhere, go home and reset the trap.

June 11, 2014 at 6:28 pm

LILLIE EVERETTsays:

Can you please tell me what to use to get rid of chipmunks,they are going in my plants i bought pellets from lowes and its not helping. Thanks Lillie

June 7, 2014 at 10:12 am

N Luree Bowensays:

I finally found some castor oil and we plan to start the process this coming week. Will let you know the results.